Duck, Ahoy!

What’s big, yellow, and afloat in the Pacific Ocean?

PHOTO: The artist wants the duck to remind people that we all live in one world. (Jessica Hromas / Getty Images)

MAP: The giant rubber duck can currently be seen in Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, China. (Jim McMahon)

You might have had some cool bathtub toys when you were younger, but people in Hong Kong probably have you beat. They have a rubber ducky that’s about six stories high! This gigantic tub toy is floating in the harbor outside the city.

Crowds at the Chinese city’s Victoria Harbour are marveling at this latest tourist attraction—a 54-foot-tall rubber duck bobbing between bridges and in the shadow of skyscrapers.

Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman built the huge inflatable sculpture, called Rubber Duck. It looks just like what you’d find in a child’s bathtub—only really, really big.

TOY STORY

Why did the artist create this floating sculpture?

“It means that we’re living on one planet—we’re one family and all the waters of the world [are] our global bathtub,” Hofman says.

Rubber Duck is a hit with younger people. “I had this [same kind of] duck bathing with me when I was a child,” Angeline Lau Hiu-ling, 13, told reporters. “I’m very excited!”

But the artist says the sculpture is not just for kids. “I see it as an adult thing,” Hofman says. “It makes you feel young again.”

Hofman plans to release 1,000 miniature versions of his giant rubber ducky—they aren’t as big as Rubber Duck, but they’re not small enough to fit inside a bathtub either. The mini ducks will be sold to raise money for the Joyful (Mental Health) Foundation, a charity that helps people who have mental illnesses.

Other recent sculptures by Hofman include a massive monkey made from 10,000 flip-flops, a floating pig with Mickey Mouse ears, and many other inflatable animals, such as bright bunnies and colorful penguins.

INTERNATIONAL WATERS

Rubber Duck is already a world traveler. It has visited 12 different cities in 10 countries around the globe, including Osaka, Japan; Auckland, New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; and São Paulo, Brazil. The ducky will be floating in Hong Kong until June 9.

Where will it float next? Rubber Duck is set to visit the United States soon. Nobody is saying what city it’s coming to, though. “I can’t say,” Hofman says. “It’s confidential.” That means it’s a secret.

Hofman says people will have to stay tuned to find out where the duck will stay on its American visit.